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Vampire
Monsters with a mouth full of sharp fangs that drink the blood (or other bodily fluids) of victims. They can reproduce through blood to blood contact, are injured by iron, and are killed by decapitation. These creatures appear in cultures all around the world, most prominently in Slavic and Eastern European cultures. The traditional view of the vampire comes from the Strigoi of Romanian mythology and Nachzehrer, of German mythology. In India, there is the Vetala, parasitic monsters that will inhabit a corpse and use the deceased as a host to possess. Their typical diet consists of human fluids. Both the ancient Celts and Medieval Europeans recorded the wraith. Also called Shtriga and Soul-Eaters, these monsters feed off the life force of children. If a wraith is morphed into its true form while feeding, it is vulnerable. Vampires are not unique to Europe, as they also appear in Asia as the Jiangshi in China and Aswang in the Philippines. The Aswang are monsters that use their long proboscis-like tongue to feed on the amniotic fluid of a pregnant mother through insertion in the navel. They are known to make a clicking noise, thus, they are also called “tik-tik.” In the Americas, the Camazotz, or Death Bat, was worshiped as a deity of blood and the underworld by the Maya, dwelling in the dark realm of Xibalba in service to the gods of death. Later Hispanic folklore would recount the Chupacabra, a canid vampire known to hunt livestock, draining them of their blood with a signature three hole puncture wound. In Peru, the Pishtaco fed on human fat, digesting it with a set of serrated teeth acting like a butcher knife. Historically, vampires have been associated with the elitism. This can be found in Proverbs 30:14, which states, "There are those whose teeth are swords, whose teeth are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mortals." Perhaps the most famous vampire of history is Dracula, that being Vlad Tepes (r. 1448-1478). This Wallachian prince and his house, according to legend, attended Scholomance, a school hidden in the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, said to be taught by the Devil himself. Only ten pupils attend the school at a time, and of the ten, only one is chosen by the Devil. Legend has it that Dracula was that one pupil, gaining an inhuman power from the Dark Lord. Dracula was known for his extreme violence, implying his enemies on stakes. One story tells of him slitting the throats of all his guests at a banquet and impaling their still twitching bodies. Another recalls him nailing the turbans into the skulls of Ottoman envoys after decapitating them when they refused to take off their headdresses in piety. Most horrifyingly, in 1462 when the sultan Mehmed II ventured to the capital of Wallachia, he came to find the city deserted. Only the dead remained, as the bodies of hundreds of Turkish captives were impaled and displayed on spikes. Men, women, and children—none were spared Dracula’s wrath. A few centuries later in 1614, the high courts of the kingdom of Hungaria discovered the many crimes of the vampire Elizabeth Báthory. This countess tortured and killed over 650 high born girls who she took in at her estate, Čachtice Castle. Her husband, Ferenc Nádasdy, had an equal interest in sadism, constructing an elaborate torture chamber for her personal use. She would kidnap girls, dangle them above her, slit their throats, and use their blood to fill a bath which she would submerge her body into. Báthory exposed her naked skin to the precious fluid in an attempt to make herself younger. For such crimes, she was ultimately put under house arrest, unable to feed and left to wither away.